Hristo Botev

Hristo Botev (6 January 1848-1 June 1876) was a Bulgarian revolutionary who was killed during the 1876 April Uprising against the Ottoman Empire. Botev is considered to be a Bulgarian national hero, having devoted much of his life to authoring Bulgarian poetry, writing for nationalist publications, and fighting against the Turkish occupation.

Biography
Hristo Botev was born in Kalofer, Ottoman Bulgaria on 6 January 1848, the son of a Bulgarian nationalist. In 1863, while studying in Odessa, he became familiar with the works of Russian liberal poets, and, upon graduating in 1865, he became a teacher in Odessa and Bessarabia and began to compose his own poetry. In 1867, he returned to Kalofer and became a teacher, and he was exiled to Romania that same year for making a speech attacking the Ottomans and the wealthy Bulgarians who collaborated with the Turkish occupiers. Botev and Vasil Levski lived in an abandoned mill near Bucharest, and the two of them became close friends. Botev returned to teaching in Bessarabia from 1869 to 1871, and, during the 1870s, he and Lyuben Karavelov began writing for nationalist newspapers. Levski was captured and hanged in 1873, demoralizing the revolutionary movement and causing Karavelov to end his political activism, which led to Botev severely criticizing him. In 1875, the uprising in Bosnia and Herzegovina motivated Botev and Stefan Stambolov to launch a Bulgarian uprising, culminating in the April Uprising of 1876. Botev became Voivoda of a guerrilla company, and, with the help of a sympathetic Austro-Hungarian ship captain, Botev landed at Kozloduy and ritualistically kissed the soil of his homeland. Ottoman Army garrisons and Bashi-Bazouks were mobilized to put down the uprising, and, while Botev and his company won several small victories while outrunning the Ottomans, Botev was shot dead by an Ottoman sharpshooter at Mount Okoltchitza on 1 June 1876. He went on to become a Bulgarian national hero following his tragic death.